By Craig Dunn
Logan Daily News
LOGAN — The seniors who lead the 2009 Logan Chieftains can reach a huge milestone by defeating Chillicothe Friday night… fittingly, on Senior Night.

Logan football historian Spencer Waugh of loganfootball.com points out the Logan High School Class of 2010 has a 29-3 record and can become just the second LHS class to reach 30 wins over a three-year span as seniors, juniors and sophomores.

The LHS Class of 2002, featuring LHS Hall of Famer and future Ohio State Buckeye Derek Harden, set the standard with a 31-4 record during the 1999, 2000 and 2001 seasons, including back-to-back undefeated seasons in 2000 and 2001… something the Chiefs will try to do Friday night as well.
Waugh noted that, should the current Chiefs defeat Chillicothe and also win an opening-round playoff game, they would do no worse than equal that all-time mark, and would have the best all-time record for any class if they reach the third round (the regional finals) of the playoffs.

And not to be forgotten is the LHS Class of 2001, with Hall of Famers Joey Conrad, Johnny Conrad and Wayne Bateman, which went 29-5 in 1998, 1999 and 2000.

Playoff tickets: For the fourth-consecutive season, the Logan Chieftains will be playing football in week 11.

The Chiefs are mathematically assured their week 11 game, in the opening round of the Division II Region 7 playoffs, will be next Friday, Nov. 6 (7:30 p.m.) in Logan Chieftain Stadium.

If the Chiefs finish second in Region 7, which is the likely scenario, they’ll host the No. 7 seed in the opening round. While the Ohio High School Athletic Association won’t officially announce the pairings until Sunday, the Chiefs will probably have a good idea who they’ll be playing by the wee hours of Saturday morning.

Ron Janey, Logan High School activities director, said playoff game tickets will go on sale next Tuesday, Nov. 3, in the LHS athletic office.

Those who had reserved seats this season will have the first opportunity to purchase tickets and may do so from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday in the athletic office.

Season-ticket holders can purchase only the same reserved seats, according to Janey, and need to purchase them Tuesday in order to get them.

Then, starting next Wednesday, general admission tickets will go on sale and will be available during school hours through Friday afternoon. Seats not purchased by season-ticket holders on Tuesday will also be made available beginning next Wednesday morning.

All tickets are $6 in advance and $8 the night of the game. LHS receives a percentage of all advance tickets sold.

Also, other than for people who are working at the game site that night, season-ticket holders are reminded there will be no reserved parking at Logan Chieftain Stadium next Friday.

The shuttle-bus option from the Logan-Hocking Middle School will be available. Buses will begin running at 5:30 p.m.

More career records: Quarterback Patrick Angle, who has re-written the LHS record books, became Logan’s all-time leader in career

passing yardage last week, improving his total to 4,503.

His 328 completions are also an LHS career record, and if he can stay around his current 65.2 completion percentage he’ll eclipse the mark of 63.3 set by Chad Zimmerman in 1994. With two more touchdown passes he’ll reach the 50 mark for his career; his 25 TD aerials in 2008 stand as the school record, and his 21 this season ranks second.

Receiver Mason Mays needs just three more receptions to reach 100 for his career, with each reception adding to his all-time LHS career best. The same goes for his 24 career touchdown receptions and for the 21 straight games in which he’s caught a pass. With 10 touchdown receptions this fall, he’s just three behind the season record of 13 set by D.J. Conrad in 1985 and tied by Mays last season.

Mays has caught all 24 of his career touchdown passes from an Angle: 23 from Patrick (this season and last), and one from Michael Angle during the Chiefs’ 76-20 rout of Marietta in 2007.

Improved, but not enough: Zanesville, Athens and Warren all made tremendous strides this season. Combined, they’re 23-4 going into their season finales after going 13-17 in 2008.

If they all win Friday (Zanesville at home against 7-2 Jackson, Warren at home against 7-2 Ironton and Athens at 7-1 Wahama, W.Va.), they would finish a combined 26-4 and double their 2008 win totals.

Zanesville is 8-1 this year (5-5 in 2008), Athens 8-1 (4-6) and Warren 7-2 (4-6), with two of those losses (Zanesville’s only loss and one of Warren’s two) being to Logan.

Unfortunately, none of them are in the top 10 in Division II Region 7, and it’s a longshot that any of them will make the playoffs. Zanesville (currently 18th) and Warren (14th) probably would have been in contention had they beaten the Chiefs, and Athens (13th) probably let a possible berth - their first in nearly 20 years - get away when they lost 14-13 to Nelsonville-York a couple weeks ago.

Why? Because the teams they’ve beaten have a combined record of 49-156… a winning percentage of .239.

Athens’ eight wins are over teams who are 20-52 (.277), with only one over a winning team (7-2 Alexander); the eight teams Zanesville has beaten are just 13-59 (.181), with the Blue Devils having beaten only one winning team (5-4 Columbus St. Charles), and the seven teams Warren has beaten are 16-45 (.262), with victories over two winning teams (5-3 Parkersburg South and 5-3 Point Pleasant), both from West Virginia.

Athens and Warren both beat 0-9 Belpre, Warren also beat 0-9 Morgan, and Zanesville beat 0-9 Newark, 0-9 Beaver Local and four teams who are 1-8, including Marietta, Gallipolis and Chillicothe.

By contrast, the combined record of the teams Logan has defeated is 43-47 (.478). Six have winning records (Zanesville, Ironton, Jackson, Warren, Pickerington North and Lancaster), two are 1-8 (Gallipolis and Marietta), and one (Hamilton Township) is 0-9.

Lutz gets the record: As expected, Ironton coach Bob Lutz passed Hamilton Badin’s Terry Malone as the winningest football coach ever in Ohio when the Fighting Tigers defeated Nelsonville-York 32-12 last Friday night. Malone retired in 2003 with a record of 360-117-8; Lutz is now 361-84-5.

Lutz has been coaching for 40 years, first at Ironton St. Joseph and then at Ironton. He didn’t coach in 2006, but returned to Ironton the following season. This is his 37th year with the Tigers.

One of less than three dozen: Going into this weekend’s season finales, the Chiefs are one of 34 undefeated teams in the state. There are only four (Louisville, Logan, New Philadelphia, all in Region 7, and Cincinnati Turpin) in Division II. There are also 34 winless teams in the Buckeye State, including one Logan opponent, Hamilton Township.

The Associated Press contributed to the last two items of this report.